Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/417582
5 Budget 2015 maltatoday, TUESDAY, 18 NOVEMBER 2014 HEALTH/DISABILITY Head on, on health THE Muscat government is tak- ing on private clinics and Malta's only private hospital head-on with a new finance initiative to make surgeons work more inside public hospitals instead of taking patients out of the system so that they pay for 'preferential' surgery in private clinics. With Medical Plus Malta the Muscat government is proposing that specialists will offer medi- cal operations at weekends in the under-utilised operating theatres which tend to remain closed un- less an emergency crops up. The new measure is aimed at re- ducing the hospital waiting lists, but in doing so it will definitely eat into the operations held pri- vately in many of the private clin- ics and private hospitals. A new company, Medical Plus will enter into Public Private Partership arrangements with specialists at Mater Dei. Apart from increasing the number of operations during working hours, operations will be carried out during weekends, when operating theatres are idle. Specialists and surgeons will be given a weekly quota and once reached they'll be given an oppor- tunity to perform additional op- erations, which are normally held in private hospitals. Mater Dei still offers the best medical service on the Island and more importantly it also has the best guarantee for an overall health service. The government may have just issued a fatwa to the private health sector but offered a guaranteed revenue stream for health specialists. Government sources said that the medical specialists would be requested to carry out a fixed number of operations and then add on this quota a number of extra operations. "Payment for these operations will probably be slightly lower than what they are paid in the private sector, but it will be an assured f low of work." The proposal will also reduce the dependence on private clin- ics which traditionally served to replace the slow and understaffed public medical service. There has been no reference to private health insurance and it ap- pears that discussion with the op- erators is still in its early stages. The government has also an- nounced that it wishes to have Gozo serve as an attraction for a medical hub for foreign medical tourism, knowing all too well that the hospital in Victoria, could very well serve this purpose. And as a final knot to the gov- ernment's blueprint for health reform is the intention to invite a private partner to actively engage in a proposal into converting St Luke's hospital as a medical re- covery centre. It is another clear indication of how central health reform is to government policy. St Luke's The private sector will also be invited to submit proposals and eventually manage the St Luke's Hospital building in Guarda- mangia, with government show- ing preference for a health related venture. Privatising Bormla clinic Government will enter in agree- ment with a private company to refurbish and manage the Bormla health centre. In what is a first, Scicluna reassured that govern- ment workers will be redeployed to other areas and services will remain free of charge as govern- ment will foot the bill. New health clinic A new health centre will be built in Zurrieq while the Rabat clinic will undergo a facelift. Quo Vadis private clinics Persons with disability MEASURES in aid of persons with disability took centre stage in the 2015 Budget, with the government committing itself to open 10 com- munity homes by 2018. The first home which will be opened in the coming months will be in Siggiewi and in the near fu- ture an expression of interest will be issued for the construction of two homes, one in Gozo and an- other in Malta. Minister Scicluna also announced a new programme to carry out structural work in private homes to ensure that persons with disability can live in their own house. Parents of persons with disabil- ity will also be able to make use of respite services through residential services or families which will offer fostering services. Moreover, trusts inherited by persons with disability will be tax- free. In a bold move, the government announced that companies which do not observe the 2% rule of em- ployment, will be fined €2,400 for each person with disability who is not employed according to the 1967 law. The law, which has never been enforced, lays down that 2% of the workforce at companies employing 20 workers or more must be persons with disability. The maximum penalty will be set at €10,000 and companies will be asked to pay a third of the penalty in 2015, two-thirds the year after and the full amount in 2017. Companies which employ persons with disability will be eligible to a tax credit of €4,500 for each person employed. In addition, the government will be setting an example by allocat- ing €500,000 to a project which will see 80 persons with disability employed in a document scanning programme in Gozo. Another measure announced by Scicluna will see the compulsory presence of a person with disability on a number of undisclosed govern- ment boards and authorities. Garage sale The Lands Department will next year launch a scheme which could see up to 2,400 garages in housing estates sold to tenants. The govern- ment will however hold on to the air space of the garages which are cur- rently rented or leased. Precarious work New regulations will come into force in the coming weeks to ad- dress precarious work in the public sector. For the first time ever, the government will be ensuring that companies which are awarded gov- ernment contracts need to guaran- tee conditions and wages enjoyed by public servants. This could see more companies being blacklisted while workers sub-contracted on government projects will be paid at the same rate as public sector workers. Skill cards will be introduced in the construction industry which will see ETC and MCAST certify- ing the abilities of workers. While acknowledging that this will be a protracted process, no deadline was given for the scheme, which should regulate the sector and address the exploitation of workers. Eco-Tax WITH many business complaining about the unlevel playing field as a result of the importation of goods from Sicily, which circumvent the eco-contribution, government an- nounced an overhaul of the ma- ligned eco-tax. The first phase of the reform in- volves eliminating the contribution on electronic and white goods clas- sified by September 2015. The measure was introduced in 2004 for businesses to pay for pack- aging that ends up as waste. Busi- nesses often complained that the costs of the packaging waste tax were passed on to the consumer. Government will embark on a consultation process with all stake- holders to ensure a smooth transi- tion in the phasing out of the tax, which will cost government up to €8 million. By June, companies will be obliged to sign up to a waste collec- tion scheme while government has committed to phase out the tax by 2016. Deposit scheme for plastic bottles A scheme offering consumers a finan- cial incentive to return plastic bottles and containers in deposits located in supermarkets and petrol stations will be introduced. The budget recalls the time when glass bottles used to be returned to shops, a scheme which had to be abandoned after Malta joined the European Union. Malta obtained a transition period from the European Commission to phase out regulations that allowed the sale of soft drinks on- ly in returnable glass bottles till 2008. The regulations limited competi- tion since no soft drinks could be pro- duced or imported in plastic bottles or cans, which the EU deemed unac- ceptable. The idea of a deposit refund on used plastic bottles returned to shops was considered abandoned by the previous government because re- tailers refused to participate. Subsequently a system was agreed through which cartons, metal and plastic are collected from households every Tuesday. The budget also announces plans to introduce the collection of organic waste in a separate bag.